Monk Gibbon
William Monk Gibbon (15 December 1896 - 29 November 1987) was an Irish poet and prolific author, known as "The Grand Old Man of Irish Letters". His collection of over 20 volumes of poetry, autobiography, travel, and criticism are kept at Queen's University Belfast. He also wrote many published novels, and has been characterised as "self-regarding and prickly".R.F. Foster. W.B. Yeats,: A Life, II p. 434. Life Family Gibbon was born in Dublin,Gibbon, Monk, Irish Writers Online. Web, Jan. 24, 2017. the son of the Rev. Canon William Monk Gibbon (1864-1935), a Church of Ireland clergyman and (from 1900) vicar of St. Nahi's Church, Dundrum.http://www.eiretek.org/chapters/books/ball1-6/Ball2/ball2.2.htm. His mother, Isabella Agnes (Meredith), was a daughter of William Rice Meredith of Dublin, the brother of John Walsingham Cooke Meredith. Monk was a nephew of The Rt. Hon. Richard Edmund Meredith and a first cousin of Carew Arthur Meredith. Monk's uncle, John, inherited the Gibbon estates of Sleedagh House, County Wexford, and The Parks in Neston, Cheshire, which came to them via the Monk family for whom he was named. Career He was educated at St. Columba's College, Dublin and Keble College, Oxford, but after only one term he volunteered for the army, serving as an officer in France during the First World War until invalided out in 1918. He became an avid pacifist after his experiences of war, and left Ireland to teach English in Switzerland. He also taught in England before returning to Ireland, not retiring until he was in his 80'x. As a British Officer on leave in Ireland, he was involved in the Easter Rising of 1916. His book Inglorious Soldier gives a first-hand, and one of the most detailed accounts of the shooting of the pacifist Francis Sheehy-Skeffington. His papers present lively and intimate accounts of the famous Irish writers whom he knew personally, such as William Butler Yeats, George Moore (novelist), Edith Anna Somerville and Katharine Tynan. At his father's church, Lily Yeats, sister of W.B. Yeats, was a parishioner.http://irishartsreview.com/html/features/yeats/feature_yeats.htm. There was also a family relationship: Gibbon and the Yeats family were cousins. There was no love lost between the two poets, however; and the biography Gibbon wrote of Yeats was rather hostile. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of Dublin in 1947. Yeats reportedly said of Gibbon: "Monk Gibbon is one of the three people in Dublin whom I dislike ... because he is argumentative!""William Monk Gibbon and Tara Hall", A brief history of Tara Hall, Tara Hall Bed & Breakfast, Web, May 27, 2012. In 1963, Gibbon collaborated in the editing and publication of Michael Farrell's posthumous novel Thy Tear's Might Cease. Private life In 1928, he married Mabel Winifred Dingwall, daughter of Walter Molyneux Dingwall of Bonchurch and Mabel Sophia (Spender), a daughter of Edward Spender of Bath, Somerset. They were the parents of 6 children.Mabel Winifred Dingwall, The Peerage. Web, Jan. 18, 2017. Mrs Gibbon's father, Edward Spender, was a strong supporter of the Women's Suffrage movement in which his sister, the novelist Emily Spender played a leading role as a member of the executive committee of the Central Committee of the National Society for Women's Suffrage. Edward Spender was a cousin of the diarist Henry Crabb Robinson, and a brother-in-law of the novelist Lillian Spender and the liberal politician William Saunders, with whom he founded the Central News Agency (London). Mrs Gibbon's mother was a first cousin of John Alfred Spender, uncle of the poet Sir Stephen Spender. Tara Hall, at Sandymount, County Dublin, was the Gibbon family home from 1953 until Monk Gibbon's death in 1985. It was a literary centre, and afternoon tea parties there often ran into the night. Frequent visitors there included Irish writers such as Padraic Colum, Ulick O'Connor and Austin Clarke. Gibbon always wrote in bed and often wandered down to the sea front in his pyjamas to collect driftwood. He was a keen cyclist all his life and could still be found riding his bicycle around Sandycove in his late eighties. Recognition Gobbon became a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1950, and a member of the Irish Academy of Letters in 1960.Dr. William Monk Gibbon, The Peerage. Web, Jan. 18, 2017. Publications Poetry * The Tremulous String (limited edition). Grayhound Press, 1926. * The Branch of Hawthorn Tree (illustrated by Picart Le Doux). London: Grayhound Press, 1927. * For Daws to Peck At. London: Gollancz, 1929. *''A Ballad''. St-Cross, Winchester, UK: Grayhound Press, 1930. * Seventeen Sonnets. London: Joiner & Steele, 1932. * This Insubstantial Pageant. London: Phoenix House, 1951. * The Climate of Love. London: Gollancz, 1961. * The Velvet Bow, and other poems. London: Hutchinson, 1972. *''Corfe Castle, Dorset''. Portmamock, Ireland: Poetry Ireland, 1975. Non-fiction * The Seals. London: Cape, 1935. * Mount Ida. London: Cape, 1948. *''The Red Shoes Ballet: A critical study''. London: Saturn Press, 1948. *''Swiss Enchantment''. London: Evans, 1950. *''The Tales of Hoffmann: A study of the film''. London: Saturn Press, 1951. *''An Intruder at the Ballet''. London: Phoenix House, 1952. *''Austria''. London: Batsford, 1953. *''In Search of Winter Sport''. London: Evans, 1953. *''Western Germany''. London: Batsford, 1955. *''The Rhine and its Castles''. London: Putnam, 1957. * The Masterpiece and the Man: Yeats as I knew him. London: Hart-Davis, 1959. *''Netta''. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1960. *foreword to Letters from AE (edited by Alan Denson). London & New York: Abelard-Schuman, 1961. * Inglorious Soldier. London: Hutchinson, 1968. * The Brahms Waltz. London: Hutchinson, 1970. * The Pupil: A memory of love. Dublin: Wolfhound Press, 1981. Edited *George William Russell AE, The Living Torch. London & New York: Macmillan, 1937. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Monk Gibbon, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Aug. 24, 2012. See also * List of Irish poets Notes External links ;Poems *Monk Gibbon at Poetry Nook ("From Disciple to Master") *"The Last Thing" *"I tell her she is lovely" & "Song" ;About *(William) Monk Gibbon in the Oxford Companion to Irish Literature *Gibbon, Monk at Irish Writers Online *(William) Monk Gibbon (1896-1987) at Ricorso * "Two Traditionalists" (review of This Insubstantial Pageant), Poetry Review 1951. ;Etc. *Tara Hall History Category:1896 births Category:1987 deaths Category:Irish poets Category:Irish writers Category:People from County Dublin Category:20th-century poets Category:Poets Category:English-language poets Category:Formalist poets